Welcome to Section 11 Writing Improvement Program

1. Welcome to Section 11 Writing Improvement Program

2. Writing Improvement Program 7 Sep/ Mtg1 – Substance 14 Sep/ Mtg2 – Organization 21 September/ Mtg 3 – Style 28 September/ Mtg-4 - Correctness Each session is 45-50 minutes long: 1530-1615 , Rm2318 (SG 11B) Team 11 POC’s: Dr Huber, Office 2126B, 684-4105 / Mr. Snider, Office 4175B, 684-3323

3. Writing Improvement ProgramSubstance:Coherence, Unity, Evidence, Logic

4. Reference Prentice Hall Handbook for Writers, 10th edition • Chapter 42, “Effective Paragraphs” • Chapter 43, “Persuasive Writing”

5. I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air I have a rendezvous with Death When Spring brings back blue days and fair. It may be he shall take my hand And lead me into his dark land And close my eyes and quench my breath It may be I shall pass him still. I have a rendezvous with Death On some scarred slope of battered hill, When Spring comes round again this year And the first meadow-flowers appear. God knows 'twere better to be deep Pillowed in silk and scented down, Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep, Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath, Where hushed awakenings are dear... But I've a rendezvous with Death At midnight in some flaming town, When Spring trips north again this year, And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous. 

6. Opening Statement-Attention Step Thesis Statement ID Major Points Critical Elements of an Argumentative Essay I. Introduction: At least one paragraph Transition (logical process) Logical, orderly progress to next part Major Point 1 II. Main Body: 2-5 paragraphs to develop your supporting major points; each contains 2-5 pieces of evidence and analysis of this evidence Evidence 1A, B… Analysis of… Transition (logical process) Major Point 2 Evidence 2A, B… Analysis of… Transition (logical process) From your analysis, tie the keypoints-ideas together that support the thesis. III. Conclusion: At least one paragraph Thesis Restatement Address Analysis of Closing Statement

7. What is substance? Substance consists of the details and logically arranged evidence that support a point of view.

8. Purposes for Writing and Paragraph Forms • Narration • Description • Exposition • Argumentation • Narrate – how did it happen? • Describe – how does it look, sound, feel, smell, taste? • Illustrate or Support– what are examples of it or reasons for it? • Define – what is it? What does it encompass, and what does it exclude? • Analyze – what are its parts or characteristics? • Classify – what groups or categories can it be sorted into? • Cause and effect – why did it happen, or what results did it have • Process – how does one do it, or how does it work? • Compare and contrast – how is it like or different from other things?

9. Purposes for Writing and Paragraph Forms • Narration • Description • Exposition • Argumentation • Narrate – how did it happen? • Describe – how does it look, sound, feel, smell, taste? • Illustrate or Support– what are examples of it or reasons for it? • Define – what is it? What does it encompass, and what does it exclude? • Analyze – what are its parts or characteristics? • Classify – what groups or categories can it be sorted into? • Cause and effect – why did it happen, or what results did it have • Process – how does one do it, or how does it work? • Compare and contrast – how is it like or different from other things?

10. Characteristics of Effective Paragraphs • Unity-using a controlling idea • Evidence -providing facts and opinions • Coherence-linking ideas and information • Development-providing details • Logic-having a system of thought

11. Paragraph Unity • What is a unified paragraph? • A paragraph that discusses only one topic • How is a unified paragraph achieved? • By using a controlling idea, usually a topic sentence • By making all sentences support, or tie to, the controlling idea

12. Paragraph Coherence • What is a coherent paragraph? • A paragraph in which the sentences move logically from thought to thought • What is meant by logic? • A system for thinking • Interrelation of sequence of facts or events when seen as inevitable or predictable • How is a coherent paragraph achieved? • By organizing ideas • By connecting ideas

13. Paragraph Coherence:Strategies to Organize Ideas • Time • Space • General to particular; particular to general • Climax (least important to most important; most important to least important • Comparison and Contrast (analogy) • Analysis and Classification • Definition • Cause and Effect

14. Paragraph Coherence:Strategies to Connect Ideas • Repeating key words and phrases • Using parallel grammatical structure • Using pronouns • Using old information to introduce new information • Using transitional expressions

15. Achieving Coherence:Transitional Expressions (1 of 2) • To show relations in spaceAbove, adjacent, at a distance from, opposite • To show relations in timeafterward, before, later, meanwhile, simultaneously, previously • To show something added to what has come beforeagain, furthermore, it addition, likewise, moreover • To give examples or to intensify pointsafter all, as an example, certainly, indeed, that is

16. Achieving Coherence:Transitional Expressions (2 of 2) • To show similaritiesin the same way, likewise • To show contrastsafter, although, but, even though, granted, in spite of, nevertheless, on the contrary • To indicate cause and effectaccordingly, as a result, because, consequently, hence, since, then, therefore, thus • To conclude or summarizefinally, in brief, in conclusion, in other words, in short, in summary

17. Paragraph Development • What is a developed paragraph? • A paragraph that has lots of details • Details about (not adjectives and adverbs) • When? • Where? • Who? • What? • Why? • How? • Length-how long should a paragraph be?

18. Paragraph Consistency • What is a consistent paragraph? • One that avoids shifts in • Person (first, second, third person) • Tense (past, present) • Number (singular, plural)

19. Planning a logical argument • Deductive vs. Inductive Reasoning • Fallacies

20. Inductive vs. Deductive Reasoning Deductive Reasoning Theory Hypothesis Observation Confirmation Theory Hypothesis Pattern Inductive Reasoning Observation

21. Premises • Premise: • a proposition antecedently supposed or proved as a basis of argument of inference; • Something assumed or taken for granted; • a presupposition • “Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that . . .” • “Granted, . . .” or “I’ll grant you that . . .” • What are you assuming? • If this thing be true, then this other thing must also be true.

22. Parts of an Inductive Argument • Assertion • Evidence • Warrant

23. Assertion • An assertion is your position or point of view that you are trying to persuade audience to accept • Also called the claim, thesis, proposition

24. Arguable Assertions • Concerns a matter of opinion—a conclusion drawn from evidence. • Can be disputed: others might take a different position • Will be disputed: it is controversial • Is something you care about and know about, or want to research • Is narrow enough to argue in the space and time available

25. Unarguable Assertions • A priori premises • Subjective expressions of taste and nonrational reactions • Matters of fact • Statements involving unverifiable facts • Statements based on insufficient facts

26. Evidence • The part of the argument that your audience is willing to accept as true without further proof. • Most evidence is either a fact or opinion • Fact: verifiable occurrence or experience • Opinion: trusted judgment believed reliable because the source is knowledgeable, prestigious, and authoritative • Sometimes called premises

27. Kinds of Evidence

28. Warrant • The connection (sometimes unstated) between the assertion and the evidence. George was born on Bermuda; therefore, George is a British subject. (One way to uncover implied warrants is to ask, what must I know or believe to make the claim true.)

29. Parts of a Deductive Argument • Major premise • Minor premise • Conclusion

30. Major Premise • A general truth, a commonly held opinion, or a belief • All men are mortal. • The horse is an obsolete mode of transportation. • Taxpayers prefer to pay as little tax as possible.

31. Minor Premise • A specific case that is related to the major premise or included by it. • The minor premises can be rephrased using the words “because” or “since” at the front • Socrates is a man. • Trigger is a horse. • Sally is a taxpayer.

32. Conclusion • The conclusion is what the major premise proves about the minor premise. • The conclusion must necessarily flow from the intersection of the major and minor premises. Socrates is mortal. Trigger is an obsolete mode of transportation. Sally prefers to pay as little tax as possible.

33. Inductive and Deductive Reasoning Compared • Assertion • Evidence • Warrant • Major Premise • Minor Premise • Conclusion Assertion: Socrates is mortal. Evidence: Socrates is a man Warrant: All men are mortal Major premise: All men are mortal. Minor premise: Socrates is a man. Conclusion: Socrates is mortal. Particular to general General to particular

34. Inductive and Deductive Reasoning Compared • Assertion • Evidence • Warrant • Major Premise • Minor Premise • Conclusion Assertion: George is a British citizen. Evidence: George was born on Bermuda. Warrant: People born on Bermuda are British citizens Major premise: People born on Bermuda are British citizens. Minor premise: George was born on Bermuda. Conclusion: George is a British citizen.

35. Tests for Inductive and Deductive Reasoning • Induction • Have you stated the evidence clearly? • Is the evidence complete enough and good enough to justify your assertion • What is the assumption that connects evidence and assertion (the warrant)? Is it believable? • Have you avoided fallacies? • Deduction • What are the premises leading to your conclusion? Examine your argument for unstated premises • What does the first premise assume? Is the assumption believable? • Does the first premise necessarily apply to the second premise? • Is the second premise believable? • Have you avoided fallacies?

36. Fallacies • Fallacies of oversimplification • Fallacies of distortion

37. Answering Objections • Acknowledge other points of view. • Challenge the strength of the strongest opposing point of view or argument. • Make concessions • Find common ground

38. Questions?

39. Reading:“A Strategic Failure:American Information Control Policy in Occupied Iraq” • What is the author’s point of view? • Who is her audience? • How does she construct her article? • How does she construct her argument? • What evidence does she use? • How does she achieve— • Unity? • Coherence? • Development? • Consistency? Goldstein, Cora Sol. “A Strategic Failure: American Information Control Policy in Occupied Iraq.” Military Review, MAR-APR 2008, p. 58-65.

40. Backup slides

41. Writing Coherent Paragraphs • Organize effectively • Use parallel construction within the paragraph • Repeat or restate works and word groups • Use pronouns • Be consistent in nouns, pronouns, and verbs • Use transitional expressions • Topic sentence • Body • Conclusion • Organize by • Space or time • Emphasis • General to specific • Specific to general • Climactic • Least familiar to most familiar • Most familiar to least familiar • Least important to most important • Most important to least important

42. Writing Coherent Paragraphs • Organize effectively • Use parallel construction • Repeat or restate works and word groups • Use pronouns • Be consistent in nouns, pronouns, and verbs • Use transitional expressions In addition to her busy career as a writer, AphraBehn also found time to briefly marry and spend a little while in debtor’s prison. She found time to take up a career as a spy for the English in their war against the Dutch. She made the long and difficult voyage to Suriname [in South America] and became involved in a slave rebellion there. She plunged into political debate at Weill’s Coffee House and defended her position from the stage of the Drury Lane Theater. She actively argued for women’s rights to be educated and to marry whom they pleased, or not at all. She defied the seventeenth-century dictum that ladies must be modest and wrote freely about sex.

43. Writing Coherent Paragraphs • Organize effectively • Use parallel construction • Repeat or restate works and word groups • Use pronouns • Be consistent in nouns, pronouns, and verbs • Use transitional expressions Having listened to both Chinese and English, I also tend to be suspicious of any comparisons between the two languages. Typically, one language—that of the person doing the comparing—is often used as the standard, the benchmark for a logical form of expression. And so the language being compared is always in danger of being judged deficient or superfluous, simplistic or unnecessarily complex, melodious or cacophonous. English speakers point out that Chinese is extremely difficult because it relies on variations in tone barely discernible to the human ear. By the same token, Chinese speakers tell me that English is extremely difficult because it is inconsistent, a language of too many broken rules, of Mickey Mice and Donald Ducks.

44. Writing Coherent Paragraphs • Organize effectively • Use parallel construction • Repeat or restate works and word groups • Use pronouns • Be consistent in nouns, pronouns, and verbs • Use transitional expressions After dark, on the warrenlike streets of Brooklyn where I live, I often see women who fear the worst from me. They seem to have set their faces on neutral, and with their purse straps strung across their chests bandolier-style, they forge ahead as though bracing themselves against being tackled. I understand, of course, that the danger they perceive is not a hallucination. Women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrator of that violence. Yet these truths are no solace against the kind of alienation that comes of being ever the suspect, a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact.

45. Writing Coherent Paragraphs • Organize effectively • Use parallel construction • Repeat or restate works and word groups • Use pronouns • Be consistent in nouns, pronouns, and verbs • Use transitional expressions Shifts in tense In the Hopi religion, water is the driving force. Since the Hopi lived in the Arizona desert, they needed water urgently for drinking, cooking, and irrigating crops. Their complex beliefs are focused in part on gaining the assistance of supernatural forces in obtaining water. Shifts in number Kachinas represent spiritually the tings and events of the real world, such as cumulus clouds, mischief, cornmeal, and even death. A kachina is not worshipped as a god but regarded as an interested friend. They visit the Hopi from December through July in the form of men who dress in kachina costumes and perform dances and other rituals. Shifts in person Unlike the man, the Hopi woman does not keep contact with kachinas through costumes and dancing. Instead, one receives a tihu, or small effigy, of a kachina from the man impersonating the kachina. You are more likely to receive a tihu as a girl approaching marriage, though a child or older woman sometimes receives one, too.

46. Writing Coherent Paragraphs Medical science has succeeded in identifying the hundreds of viruses that can cause the common cold. It has discovered the most effective means of prevention. One person transmits the cold viruses to another most often by hand. An infected person covers his mouth to cough. He picks up the telephone. His daughter picks up the telephone. She rubs her eyes. She has a cold. It spreads. To avoid colds, people should wash their hands often and keep their hands away from their faces. • Organize effectively • Use parallel construction • Repeat or restate works and word groups • Use pronouns • Be consistent in nouns, pronouns, and verbs • Use transitional expressions

47. Transitional Devices Medical science has thus succeeded in identifying the hundreds of viruses that can cause the common cold. It has also discovered the most effective means of prevention. One person transmits the cold viruses to another most often by hand. For instance, an infected person covers his mouth to cough. Then, he picks up the telephone. Half an hour later, his daughter picks up the same telephone. Immediately afterward, she rubs her eyes. Within a few days, she, too, has a cold. And thus, it spreads. To avoid colds, therefore, people should wash their hands often and keep their hands away from their faces. Medical science has succeeded in identifying the hundreds of viruses that can cause the common cold. It has discovered the most effective means of prevention. One person transmits the cold viruses to another most often by hand. An infected person covers his mouth to cough. He picks up the telephone. His daughter picks up the telephone. She rubs her eyes. She has a cold. It spreads. To avoid colds, people should wash their hands often and keep their hands away from their faces.

48. Achieving Coherence:Transitional Expressions • To show relations in space Above, adjacent, at a distance from, opposite • To show relations in time afterward, before, later, meanwhile, simultaneously, previously • To show something added to what has come before again, furthermore, it addition, likewise, moreover • To give examples or to intensify points after all, as an example, certainly, indeed, that is • To show similarities in the same way, likewise • To show contrasts after, although, but, even though, granted, in spite of, nevertheless, on the contrary • To indicate cause and effect accordingly, as a result, because, consequently, hence, since, then, therefore, thus • To conclude or summarize finally, in brief, in conclusion, in other words, in short, in summary